This holiday season, get ready for one of the most violent and goriest Christmas movies in quite some time with the Magnus Martens-directed horror comedy There's Something in the Barn, which stars the fan-favorite Martin Starr (Spider-Man: No Way Home; Silicon Valley; Party Down) in the lead role as a man named Bill who moves his family to Norway to start anew and claim his family's estate.
However, things take a wicked turn when his son Lucas discovers a mischievous elf living in their barn with a set of rules the family must follow. When Bill dismisses his son's warnings and fails to follow sacred holiday traditions, the elf and all of his elf friends plot to get rid of the American intruders at any cost, which inevitably leads to loads and loads of bloodshed.
As the film arrives on Digital HD today, we were recently able to catch up with the hysterically funny Martin Starr to get some insight on his experience making this wholly unique Christmas movie, shooting in Norway, leading such an action-packed movie, his comedy style, and more.
He was also more than kind enough to talk about his time working on Jon Watts' Spider-Man trilogy, the recent Party Down revival, and whether Silicon Valley could ever return, amongst other things.
Watch our full interview with Martin Starr below and/or keep scrolling to read the full transcript! Plus, please remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more exclusive content!
ROHAN: What initially attracted you to this story? Were you looking to a do a Christmas movie? Or was it more the extreme violence that piqued your interest?
MARTIN: *laughs* That's what I look for in scripts generally is violence, that's the first thing, I just kind of skim it for blood splatter. I liked the story. I mean, the family aspect of it. I also love Norway, and so, it's interesting to get to go back to Norway, and work there again, and get to learn about the culture through this movie, and, you know, this is such an interesting, weird folklore, Christmas folklore, that they have that we got to kind of play with the story. So, that was fun, and my cousin lives in Oslo, so I get to go back and visit him, and there were plenty of reasons to do it, to go do this movie, and I couldn't think of a single reason not to. So, it all worked out, and we got to shoot in Vilnius in Lithuania for half the movie, and so, I got to learn about Vilnius, which is a beautiful, beautiful European city that I had no idea should be on my checklist of places to visit in my lifetime, but absolutely beautiful and historical, and the food was incredible. You know, this is a travel blog that you're writing, right?
ROHAN: Yeah, something like that. I mean, that’s awesome, cause the location does look stunning. I was kind of thinking, after watching this movie, which is another highly violent Christmas movie, that there does seem to be an increasing demand for these uber-violent holiday-themed movies. What are sort of your thoughts on what’s fueling this trend in audiences today?
MARTIN: I wish I knew how the psyche of people worked in mass, then I could totally help you figure this out. I have no idea, but I enjoy it. I don't know, I certainly have that dark part of my brain sometimes where I'm watching a non-gory movie, and I'm like, what if someone just died in the scene? That could be fun, and, in this movie that happens. *laughs* So, you get to answer that weird voice in your head that probably shouldn't exist, but you get to laugh and watch people randomly get murdered by elves in Norway. All the fun things that you've ever wanted in a movie. You’re welcome.
ROHAN: You get to do a lot of stunt work in this film, obviously, and I saw that you’ve recently worked with Sylvester Stallone on Samaritan and Tulsa King. Did you ever get to pick his brain on doing crazy action? Or was it more just your own instincts on becoming your own action hero?
MARTIN: We did a little bit of stunts for, I guess I didn't do any for Samaritan, but for Tulsa King, there was some big fight sequences and stuff that we did. On this, I didn't ask Stallone for advice, I would imagine that he would be too busy to offer me advice on how to approach stunts and movies, but I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. Next time, I go do a heavy movie, a heavy stunt movie. I'll reach out to him. Yeah, it's fun. It's fun to work on choreography, you know, it really is like a dance to pull it off and make it look right and it's really fun. I enjoyed it.
ROHAN: How many days were you shooting in Norway? Were you there a month or longer?
MARTIN: Two months, just about two months? Yeah, I think it was a seven week shoot. Yeah, it was great. We were in Norway for half that time, up in Lillehammer, which is beautiful and it was pretty dead, because it hadn’t gotten enough snow this year, so we had to ship some snow in. We FedExed snow in, no, it was by the truckload that they brought it in. But yeah, it's really, I don't know, as a kid who grew up in Los Angeles, who's no longer a kid, getting to go to a place that's beautiful and has like that stereotypical winter Christmas vibe, like Lillehammer does, it's really gorgeous. It's so cool to get to see that, and I think it really shows on the screen too how beautiful that landscape is.
ROHAN: After the Spider-Man movies, did you sort of see a shift in the roles you were being offered? Because you do play a father in this film, for I believe the first time in your career, what kind of challenge did it present to you?
MARTIN: Yeah, I mean, it's just fun to get to do new stuff. I actually got offered a job to work as a middle school teacher in real life because of that movie, and I had to let them know that I wasn't capable. No, I'm kidding. That didn't happen. But, my dad was a teacher, so when I was doing the Spider-Man trilogy, my fun part of that, I kind of got to channel him a little bit. Yeah, it's fun growing up and going through different chapters of life and getting to portray different characters on screen, I think it keeps it really interesting to get to do this job. You know, if you got stuck in like a teen movie for your whole life, that sounds like torture, but to get to play all of these characters, I've really been very fortunate to get to do a lot of different stuff, and yeah, this is another chapter. I got to go kill elves in Norway. I hope I didn't ruin the ending. No elves were hurt in real life, because elves don't exist. Uh oh, shit, I broke the fourth wall. No, no one was hurt in the making of this movie, luckily.
ROHAN: You have a really fantastic dry wit that I imagine can’t be easy style of comedy for someone else to write for, especially since you are so naturally funny. When you’re coming into a project, is that something you work with the director and writer on, to just make sure you give them your input on how to nail that humor in the script, or do you just typically take it from what’s on the page and try to make it your own?
MARTIN: I guess a lot of it for me is instinct, so the way that I read it on the page, hopefully my instincts are right, and if they're not, then somebody will come in and help me give the read that they're looking for, but I'd say that tends to be pretty rare. Hopefully, I've figured out comedy by now, I've been doing it for a long time, but yeah, I mean, I'm just fortunate that I get to work with people who I can trust. I work with people who I love and respect, so if they have any thoughts or ideas, I'm so excited to learn something and grow and try something different, and yeah, what a wonderful world. That is the tagline. That's the tagline for this movie. What a wonderful world! There's Something in the Barn!
ROHAN: Since the movie is being filmed in Norway, did you find that there was a little more leeway with the amount of violence and how gory you were able to get? Or maybe be able to experiment a little more than you initially expected to?
MARTIN: It wasn't as bloody as the last Norwegian movie I did, so I think my bar was set pretty high, but yeah, especially the sequence where the sheriff dies and we get splattered with blood, spoiler alert, that was intense and freezing cold and more than anything I worried about, because it's obviously a wet mixture that makes makes up blood, so what they sprayed on us, we're out in freezing cold weather and the kids are, you know, you just don't want people to get sick or hurt. You don't want to pour water on somebody out in ice cold weather and then make them sit out there for too long. So, some of the stunts felt a little taxing, but otherwise, I mean, it's still fun to get to do all that stuff. And, I don't know how much practical blood, I guess we use quite a bit of practical, but I did this movie Dead Snow 2 like ten years ago, and that had some some pretty insane amounts of blood. There was so much blood. I think we kept the blood industry in business because of that movie for those three months, a nd there is a whole industry and we went direct, we actually farmed that blood through the hospitals. So, we use real - I'm kidding. We use all the leftovers, the stuff they couldn't use, obviously, we don't want to waste it. Yeah, it's fun to get to do a movie where everybody's all bloody for the whole movie.
ROHAN: A lot of times you’re coming into a project for a few scenes, and you end up stealing the scene, and then you get to move on to the next one. How does that compare to a movie like this where you’re playing the leading man, #1 on the call sheet, and that responsibility of leading the project falls on your shoulders. Do you feel that extra sense of responsibility? Are you leading by example based on stuff you’ve learned on past projects? Or is it fairly instinctual to you at this stage of your career? Or maybe a combination of a couple different things?
MARTIN: I don't know. I don't really think about it that way, I guess. I mean, the story always felt like, you know, the elf and Lucas, the son. It always felt like that was the heart of the movie, to me, from the beginning, so it definitely feels like more of an ensemble than I think it did when I read it, but yeah, it's fun to get to do a family movie like that and mess with the dynamics of it, you know, because a lot of those are family archetypes that are ingrained in me through watching ‘90s movies when I was growing up, and to get to kind of like play with that story and those archetypes, and break some of those walls and just play with that. It's really fun. And, to get to do that with blood on your face, what's better?
ROHAN: It’s kind of hard to tell since they were so well done, but were the elves actual performers or were they puppets? Or a combination?
MARTIN: It was all real, yeah, wonderful, very talented human beings were playing all of those characters. Paul Monaghan came in from the UK and Kiran Shah played the main elf that kind of connects with Lucas. He's been in so much, I want to say he's in his 70s, I think he is, but he's just had quite a storied career and everyone in the movie is so incredibly talented, but to get to watch Kiran bring so much life to a character that only made noise and didn't actually say a single line of dialogue was incredible. I thought he did so much with so little and is truly the heart of the movie in such a wonderful way. I think he's, he's great. We were really lucky to have him be a part of this.
ROHAN: Have you had any conversations about returning for another Marvel movie? Is that something you’d be interested in?
MARTIN: I had such a great time working on those movies. Jon Watts was so fun to work with, as a director, and gave a lot of freedom to me. I don't know what I expected going into it, but it certainly wasn't to be able to have any room to improvise and play and I think I was really lucky to get to work on those movies and get to try stuff and get to play with the comedy in that world. Yeah, I would love to go back and do more of that at some point. I don't know what's happening with that, because I think there I think there is a new movie happening, but I don't know, as of now, whether I'll be a part of it, but I would obviously love to play.
ROHAN: After Spider-Man, do you get reconized more for that role? Or is it more Silicon Valley? Or Freaks and Geeks still? Or Party Down? Loved that last season, by the way.
MARTIN: I have no idea, but thank you. Yeah, that's so fun. I mean, I hope we get to go back and do another one of those. Yeah, I have no idea. I don't leave the house much, and try to walk past people quickly. So, if people recognize me, I'm not aware of what it is usually. Yeah, I frequent the same places. I'm a creature of habit. So, I'm not walking up to people and asking them if they recognize me and what from, but maybe I'll start doing that, because so that I can answer this question properly next time, because you deserve a good answer.
ROHAN: Since you did just mention Party Down, have you heard anything about a potential fourth season?
MARTIN: Not yet. I hope so. I mean, I had dinner with one of the executives not too long ago, and, you know, there's no one that doesn't want this to come back and happen again. It's tough with timing and schedules, and Adam is so busy and Lizzy is so busy, and Ken is so busy, Jane, and Megan, obviously, will always be busy. So, it's just like an incredibly difficult group of people to try to fit together and make that schedule work. It was tough enough this last time to do a season three, but we got lucky that we just kind of barely made it happen, and the whole thing shifted too with COVID protocols and all that stuff. So, somehow we managed to get it done, but yeah, I would love to go back. I would do that show forever. That is easily some of the most fun I've ever had getting to do this, and it's generally a pretty sweet gig, so it says a lot.
ROHAN: Another awesome show you were on, Silicon Valley, now feels like it was even more ahead of its time, especially with everything that’s going on in tech today and AI. Have you ever had any conversations with Mike Judge and those guys about doing maybe a limited revival? Or is that something where you feel that story is done?
MARTIN: I mean, when it ended, we were all talking about the potential of picking it back up again in a number of years, because the way that it ended, there was like that flash forward to 10 years in the future. So, even then they were toying with, well, maybe we'll come back and pick it up again in 10 years, and that'll be the seed that we grow from is that flash forward, but I don't know. To me it feels too ripe, like I don't know why we wouldn't be doing it already. There's constantly, I mean, the people that are gravitating towards tech and, I don't know, these like mega-billionaires and it's such a ripe world to parody. I don't know why we're not doing it right now. I am baffled by the fact that we're not shooting it right now, because I know that it would just be so funny. It's so fun to play in that world. I know that they struggled to parody it because it was genuinely a parody of itself, and so now, I don't know how much further you can take it then the people who are at the forefront in tech. They're already a parody of themselves, and, it's really, I don't know, I hope we get to do it. That was the longest winded answer of me saying yes, I hope we get to do it, but I don't have any word on it.
ROHAN: When you’re doing a smaller budget film like There’s Something in the Barn versus a $200 million plus production like Spider-Man, has it ever changed your perspective on movie making? Or did it always boil down to storytelling for you?
MARTIN: I mean, it's always about the character. So, my job never changes, no matter how much money is supporting the production process, but yeah, it's definitely fun to go and be a part of those giant movies, as well as, it's also really fun to get to hammer it out in the trenches, and try and make something on a very finite, minimal budget, but obviously, the older you get, the more you just like, you know, the luxuries are nice in this world, but, certainly both have their advantages. And, there's less weight, I think, on a smaller budget, so you have fewer people trying to give their input, and so it can really be a single-minded endeavor, like one person, the director really having the power that should be put in their hands, which is kind of rare on the bigger budget stuff, although I will say that I think Jon Watts, he really, I think, was the captain of that ship, and did such a great job on those three movies, and is so capable. I don't know why I didn't expect that that process wouldn't be that smooth, but it was really fun to get to go work on those Spider-Man movies, and get to play and improvise, and I just didn't expect it to be that free, but it was great. I think that's why those movies are all so good because they really do have such talented people all the way around and they allow people to play and create authentic fun, comedy and play with those stories really well.
ROHAN: I do have to tell you that my mom’s favorite scene from Far From Home was when you dropped the camera in the ocean, she can take it or leave it with all the Spider-Man stuff, but Mr. Harrington’s adventures in Italy had her rolling.
MARTIN: That’s really funny.
ROHAN: When you came back for Spider-Man: Homecoming, were you sort of aware of the connective tissue that you were playing the same character from The Incredible Hulk? Or, was that something that came out later?
MARTIN: *laughs* I know that Feige said that in an interview, but that wasn't something that was talked about previously. I don't know why the characters couldn't be the same, but I certainly hadn't connected those dots at the time. Yeah, whatever the link was, however, that character ended up there, it was very fun to get to go be a part of it. It's fun. It's crazy to get to go work in Venice, like go on a vacation in Venice, but get to work there.
ROHAN: Last question, since the world has forgotten Peter Parker, including Mr. Harrington, if you were able to return for the next movie, have you ever thought about where this character could go next? Could the next logical step be to become a professor? Or did you have something else in mind?
MARTIN: I don't know. I mean, it'd be fun to get to dig a little deeper and play with maybe a villainous role and, you know, there was - Yeah, I but I have no idea. I mean, whatever they'd want to do. I'd love to just go back and get to play. It's really fun storytelling to get to be a part of, for sure.
In this holiday horror comedy, Bill (Martin Starr) moves his American wife Carol (Amrita Acharia) and children Nora (Zoe Winter-Hansen) and Lucas (Townes Bunner) to Norway where he’s inherited a family estate. While Bill dreams of turning the adjourning barn into a bed and breakfast, his family struggles to adapt to Scandinavian life. Lucas discovers a mischievous barn elf from ancient folklore living in the barn with a set of rules the family must follow. When Bill dismisses Lucas’s warnings and fails to follow sacred holiday traditions, the elf plots to get rid of the American intruders at any cost.
There's Something in the Barn is now available on Digital HD!